Matthew Liedke

Prisoners review

Director:
Denis Villeneuve
Cast:
Hugh Jackman
Jake Gyllenhaal
Viola Davis
Terrence Howard
Paul Dano
Rated: R

Hugh Jackman didn’t need any claws to dish out some pain this time around.

“Prisoners” is a movie that takes the audience on a suspenseful and quite uncomfortable ride. Hugh Jackman plays Keller Dover, a midwestern, middle class father who has brought his family over to a friend’s house to celebrate Thanksgiving.

During the festivities, Keller and his friend Franklin’s (Howard) daughters go outside to play before dinner. However, they end up not coming back.

Continue reading “Prisoners review”

Riddick review

Director:
David Twohy
Cast:
Vin Diesel
Jordi Molla
Matt Nable
Katee Sackhoff
Rated: R

If you enjoy stories about a boy and his dog, the first 45 minutes of “Riddick” might work for you.

“Riddick” is the third installment in the sci-fi series that started well with “Pitch Black” in 2000, yet took a turn for the worse with “The Chronicles of Riddick” a few years later. The latest feature takes place an unspecified amount of time after Chronicles, the title character, Riddick (Diesel), has been betrayed and is left for dead on a planet that appears to be a barren wasteland.

As Riddick reconnects with his survival skills in the wilderness, he meets an alien dog that he trains and they wander the planet. Eventually our protagonist comes across an old outpost for mercenaries and he sets off a beacon to the stars. This results in bounty hunters coming down to capture Riddick, who is a wanted criminal. However, this is the least of all of their problems as dangerous aliens are on the way.

Continue reading “Riddick review”

2013 Summer Movie Awards

The comedy “The World’s End” from Edgar Wright led the way this year with five awards while the Superman adaptation “Man of Steel” finished with four including the top prize.

“Pacific Rim” also earned two awards.

Continue reading “2013 Summer Movie Awards”

The World’s End review

Director Edgar Wright has once again delivered a great genre film that doubles as a comedy in “The World’s End.”

The movie follows Simon Pegg as the character Gary King. Gary and his best friends originate from a small town in England and when they were younger, they attempted a pub crawl called “The Golden Mile.” The crawl has a total of 12 pubs, the last one being The World’s End, however, the group never made it there.

Fast forward to the present and Gary is the least successful out of his friends and is struggling through life. To recapture the good times, he gets his old group back together, which includes Andy, played by Nick Frost, Oliver, played by Martin Freeman, Peter played by Eddie Marsan and Steven played by Paddy Considine and once again attempt the Golden Mile.

Continue reading “The World’s End review”

The Mortal Instruments review

Director:
Harald Zwart
Cast:
Lily Collins
Jamie Campbell Bower
Kevin Zegers
Robert Sheehan
Rated: PG-13

One might notice similarities with other movies and books when viewing “The Mortal Instruments” as it tends to rip off more than a few things.

The film follows Clary (Collins), a teen who lives in New York City with her mother. One day, while hanging out with her friend Simon (Sheehan), she witnesses a murder, however, the being that was killed was actually a demon.

The murderer turns out to be a man named Jace (Bower) who hunts demons. It turns out that Clary has the same abilities as Jace does allowing her to hunt demons too. Upon learning this, Clary’s mother is kidnapped and she now has to rely on Jace and his team to track down the culprit and discover who she really is.

Continue reading “The Mortal Instruments review”

The Butler review

Director:
Lee Daniels
Cast:
Forest Whitaker
David Oyelowo
Oprah Winfrey
Terrence Howard
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Rated: PG-13

This is one of those films where you have to know the difference between “based on” and “inspired by.”

“Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” follows the story of Cecil Gaines (Whitaker), who began his life working in a cotton field as a child. After seeing his father get killed, Cecil grows up learning how to be a server inside a house. Eventually, Cecil makes his way to the Washington D.C. and over time finds himself working as a butler in an upscale hotel.

His skills allow him to be noticed by a supervisor at the White House and he begins working there soon after. Cecil ends up working under multiple presidents while serving as a butler at the White House and is able to observe major moments of how the administrations dealt with civil rights issues. Meanwhile, the job puts a bit of a strain at times on his marriage with his wife Gloria (Winfrey), as well as his son, Louis (Oyelowo), who becomes involved with multiple civil rights movements through the film.

Continue reading “The Butler review”

Kick-Ass 2 review

Looks like Kick-Ass 2 caught a severe case of “sequelitis.”

“Kick-Ass 2” follows the title character super hero who, under the mask, is high school student Dave Lizewski (Taylor-Johnson). The film picks up two years after the first movie where Dave decided to give up being Kick-Ass. However, as time goes on he hears the calling to return to crime fighting.

To improve his skills, he seeks the help of Mindy Macready (Moretz), who goes by her alter-ego Hit-Girl. Mindy helps train Dave for a while, however, circumstances force her to give up crime fighting. In order to continue patrolling the streets, Dave joins a group of amateur super heroes led by a man named Colonel Stars and Stripes (Carrey).

Trouble starts brewing though as the villain’s son from the first film, Chris (Mintz-Plasse), decides to seek revenge by building an evil army.

Continue reading “Kick-Ass 2 review”

Planes review

Director:
Klay Hall
Cast:
Dane Cook
Stacy Keach
John Cleese
Carlos Alazarqui
Roger Craig Smith
Rated: PG

You can probably tell the quality of “Planes” when you see that Sinbad is in the cast.

“Planes” follows the story of Dusty Crophopper (Cook), a crop-duster from a rural area who is tired of living the every day life of working on the farm fields. The movie is set in the world of “Cars” so every being in the film is a machine. Crophopper’s number one goal is to race in a giant world grand prix for planes.

He eventually gets his chance after going through a trial run qualifier. From there he enters the worldwide race after being trained by an old war plane named Skipper (Keach). During the race he ends up meeting a group of different characters from all over the planet.

Continue reading “Planes review”

We’re the Millers review

Director:
Rawson Marshall Thurber
Cast:
Jason Sudeikis
Jennifer Aniston
Will Poulter
Emma Roberts
Ed Helms
Nick Offerman
Kathryn Hahn
Rated: R

The Millers have a long way to go before being on the level of the Griswolds.

David Clark (Sudeikis) is a pot dealer who is living in an average apartment and going day to day without any real plan. One evening when returning home, David gets into a series of events that ends up with him getting robbed. Because of this, he has to meet with drug kingpin Brad (Helms) who he owes money to.

Brad offers David a way out and to make some money on the side, by smuggling some marijuana across the Mexican border. David agrees and to do so comes up with the plan to hire three others to act as a happy family on vacation. He ends up recruiting a stripper named Rose (Aniston), an awkward teen named Kenny (Poulter) and a runaway named Casey (Roberts).

Continue reading “We’re the Millers review”

The Way Way Back review

Directors:
Nat Faxon
Jim Rash
Cast:
Steve Carell
Toni Collette
Sam Rockwell
Liam James
AnnaSophia Robb
Rated: PG-13

Ah, the good ole’ coming of age genre.

“The Way Way Back” follows 14-year-old Duncan (James), a socially awkward teen who is on a summer vacation trip with his mother Pam (Toni Collette) and Pam’s boyfriend Trent (Carell). Duncan doesn’t exactly get along with Trent very well and keeps to himself for much of the start to his summer at a beach house.

The mundane nature of Duncan’s summer comes to a screeching hult, though, when he meets Owen (Rockwell), a man who works at the local water park. Owen is a carefree, fun loving person working with a staff who invites Duncan to get a job at the Water Park as well. Duncan starts working there and it becomes an escape from his less than stellar life at the beach house.

Continue reading “The Way Way Back review”